Michael

School ranks in Concord don't appear too high. Move the map around to see the school rankings for different areas.

California School Performance Maps

Steerpike

Burlingame is a lovely town but it is super pricey - more than Mt View I would say. I rank it second only to Palo Alto in terms of being a nice area with a good downtown vibe on the Peninsula. Not sure where you are seeing cheap houses, unless you are talking about the area really close to 101. Check out 909 Rose Ct. on Zillow for what I consider to be typical 'cheap' Burlingame property - 3 bed, 2 ba 1,600 sq. ft for $1.32M! and it is right next to 101. Or look at 1448 Laguna Ave - 3 bed, 3 bath, 2,008 sq ft for $1.8M.

I live in Walnut Creek, which is just south of Concord. Concord is a bit on the dull side, and would be a real shock to the system coming from Monterey. There really isn't a downtown to speak of, but you can easily get into Walnut Creek which has a fantastic downtown. Concord is a good example of what happens when you have poor town planning.

But there are always decent neighborhoods in every town. There's a private school called De La Salle in Concord, right on the border of Walnut Creek. That area (Treat Blvd) is not bad. A quick 'Zillow' review of the intersection of Oak Grove and Treat Blvd area shows 3br/2ba condos with 1,300 sq. ft going for $475k. Just a few blocks north of that area, though, and you are on 'Monument Blvd' which is pretty nasty. Ygnacio Valley Blvd starts out in Walnut Creek at the BART station, but eventually ends up in Concord and that is also a good neighborhood (traffic in to WC for the bart station sucks, though). Looking again at Zillow, houses near the intersection of 'Ayers Rd' and Ygnacio Valley Blvd are nice. There's a house for sale at 4417 Catalpa Ct, Concord for $700,000 - 4 bed, 3 ba, 2,330 sq ft.

Did you say what your budget was for a home?

Martinez borders on Concord and has some lovely rural areas with somewhat easy access to Concord or Pleasant Hill bart stations. Check out 2640 Reliez Valley Rd, Martinez - 3 bed/1ba, 1,420 sq ft, $750k - this is an older home surrounded by newer, more expensive homes. Very rural out that way.

Pleasant Hill (not to be confused with Pleasanton) is like Martinez - lots of not so nice spots, but neighborhoods with million dollar homes. Check out area around the intersection of Alhambra Ave and Taylor Blvd. Example property: 61 Elderwood Dr, 4 bed / 3ba, 2,041 sq ft, $765k. Or 25 Palmer Ct, 4 bed 2.5 ba, 2,632 sq ft, $899k.

El Cerrito (north of Berkeley) has lovely areas too; I was at a friends house today just off 'Arlington'. Zillow shows houses near the intersection of "Buckingham Dr" and Arlington Blvd going for $700k and up (example: 3 bed, 2 ba, 1,631 sq ft for $700k). Definitely a decent neighborhood (El Cerrito is not considered fancy but this area is great).

If you want to get a feel for the areas, hit the various intersections and circle around.

I personally love the area west of the developed cities in the Martinez/Pleasant Hill area, they back up to massive open spaces (Briones Regional Park). I'm looking to move to that area myself in a few years. I love the weather there too; after 12 years of coastal Fog I was glad to get away from the coast and get inland where the sun shines! YMMV ...

Hotscot

Have you considered moving somewhere else entirely?
Just curious...I'm still in a quandary myself, making a list of requirements for when we move from here...

Giantaxe

I hiked in Briones on Monday... just gorgeous at this time of year.

markonline1

The wife works for Fidelity. The only reason we're moving is for her job. Anywhere else and we get too far from the grandparents (one set anyway), so no, we haven't. And steerpike, good helpful post, thanks.

Steerpike

I had a dental appt. on Ygnacio Valley Blvd (YVB) today, and after it, decided to head towards Concord to check out that area a bit more (as mentioned, I'm in the market to move in the next year or so, so this is my hobby at the moment). I found a great neighborhood (for me) that was backing up against open space with oak trees, in the high $800-$900k range. Check out this area. The biggest challenge for you/wife would be it's a long haul down YVB to get to WC bart. Once you are at the bart station, the ride to Montgomery St station is a dream - did it for over 10 years and loved it.

I re-read your original post, you mentioned $100k income but didn't mention any equity, or any price range on houses. If you already have a house, then all you have to worry about is the delta. So do you have an idea of what you want to spend? With an idea of price, I can better tell you what's available.

I'm hoping to downsize and end up with no mortgage, to ease into retirement. My current place is currently around $1.25m with mortgage just over $100k, so buying something around $900k would be perfect. But I do prefer the Lafayette / Walnut Creek area due to proximity to dining, grocery stores, hiking, bart, and easy drive into SF ... so my alternative is to keep working and pay more ...

I did a bit more research on Burlingame to see if I was speaking out of turn in my previous post. Burlingame has (according to this site) a median home value of $1.7M. Mountain View median is $1.1M. El Cerrito: $685k; Concord: $400k; Martinez: $400k; Pleasant Hill: $550k. Walnut Creek: $630k. And Monterey: $526k. (Note in that website, they show 'Palo Alto' in San Mateo County with a median of only $500k ... but that is EAST Palo Alto! The 'real' Palo Alto is in Santa Clara county and has a median of $2.2M).

N1cky

Like I said, I was going on hearsay. Hubby works with 3 people who have bought in Burlingame within the last 6 months for under $800k.

markonline1

More great help Steerpike, thanks again. Price is gonna top out at about $500k which is why it's gonna be a struggle. We are gonna be right at the bottom of the market, but we don't want to live in one of the ghetto areas, we want a good school area, 3 bedrooms, a bit of land and not a million miles from a BART station. We're going up the weekend of valentines to stay the night and meet up with a realtor so we'll see what the chances of this actually happening are. I'm starting to think not very likely LOL.

N1cky

Let us know how you get on. I'd think your chances are slim, but would love to be wrong.

Could you maybe rent for a while, while you find a job here? That would give you more money to buy.

markonline1

I think you're right LOL.
Renting has been muted, but I'm totally anti feeding landlords pockets whilst I tip money down the toilet. To go from owning to renting would suck a little too (although we do still have a place in NC we are renting out so maybe not so bad). All options are still on the table

Giantaxe

Yeh but if you have a mortgage it's feeding banks' pockets...

Lots of reasons to buy versus own, but I've never agreed with the premise that renting is tipping money down the toilet. It's a lot more complex an equation than that.

Sally Redux

You should make sure you like the area by renting for a while first.
Definitely.

markonline1

Yeah, I know, but at least you are buying your bricks and mortar (or whatever it is they build houses with here). Renting, I struggle to get past the whole paying out probably more than a mortgage payment a month and at the end of it, you have nothing. Plus, I'd hope we would be in a position to better ourselves in a few years if we were on the property ladder. We're not ruling out renting, and Sally, that's a good point, but certainly I'd prefer not too. More so with 2 mahoosive dogs, 1 3 legged cat, 4 chickens and a gold fish

N1cky

I know how you feel. I despise renting, and dream of buying here. (Now we have our GC's hopefully we can make that happen this year). House prices here are constantly on the rise too, so anything you put in you should get back. Whereas renting, you get nothing in return. OMG, you've just made me calculate what we've paid in rent in the last 7 years. I'm going to go cry now

Sally Redux

I sure wish I'd kept the house in Barnet